The winds of change are blowing through DMD once again. For the second time in the blog's four-year history, I've decided to change the existing star-rating system. Instead of a 5-star system (with half-stars), I've dropped to a 4-star system (keeping the half-stars).
The reasoning is simple: I think the addition of half-stars a few years ago was a wise move to tease apart rankings of episodes (too many were being marked 3/5 in the old days), but it was becoming obvious that 5-stars was too much. The chance of getting a 5-star ranking has always been low (intentionally, because it makes full marks feel exclusive and special*), but when was the last time you saw a 1-star review here? Or a dreaded half-star review? Pretty much never.
Now, this is partly because I choose to review shows I enjoy watching (yeah, call me crazy!), so my tastes mean there aren't many TV shows delivering 1-star episodes most weeks. Maybe if I had time to review random pilots and box-sets, things would be different. The low-end stars were only really appearing in movie reviews here, while TV reviews tended to wobble around 2 ½-star to 4-star range. Anything below or above that wasn't a common occurrence.
A change to a 4-stars maximum should help shake things up. I can dish out 1-star reviews without it somehow feeling as "harsh", and there will probably be more 4-star reviews than 5-stars. Although I'll never just throw out top marks willy-nilly. It has to be something that really moves, excites or shocks me to get the top mark.
Anyway, I know these star-ratings aren't to everyone's taste. Some people hate how things are distilled into simple rankings, and prefer to gauge things purely on the written review. And that's fine. Whatever suits you. But other people like to browse and just get an idea of my reaction based on the stars before deciding to read on. And that's cool, too.
* Did you know there were only 13 TV episodes rated 5-stars over the entirety of 2009?
Update: you can search all of my top "Full Stars" reviews (only 33 since '06) by clicking here.
In other blog-related news: expect my True Blood reviews to return from next Tuesday, as season 3 begins on HBO this Sunday (13 Jun); I'm still making my way through The Good Wife on Channel 4; I've started catching up with Justified on Bravo; I'm recording Touching Evil every Friday morning to watch at the weekend; and some of you will be pleased to known I'm a few episodes into Firefly now.
Oh, before I forget -- are there any thoughts about the "featured content" slideshow widget in the sidebar? Anyone using it? Is it working okay? Let me know.
Other aesthetic changes to DMD will be happening this summer, rejuvenating the blog for the 2010/11 TV season in September.
P.S -- anyone know what the subject header's a quote from?
